Question about duplicates and system performance

[SamFlash 0]

I've always been careful about not having any duplicate .dat and .SC4Lot files in my plugin folders as one of the first things I learned here in 2004 was that duplicates slow down the game.  Recently I decided to check for duplicate .SC4Desc and .SC4Model files and came up with a ton of them.  They have the same name and same size but are paired with different lots.  My question is - can they be safely deleted or does each lot need it's own model file and description file?  How do different lots share the same model file?

Moderator - If this is the wrong forum to post this question in then please move it to a more appropriate forum.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Pairing one and the same building with various lots is quite possible and nothing extraordinary.

Let's say you have a building to begin with. Then you use the plugin manager to call it "Average House" and mod it as growable R$$. Finally, you will select a pre-existing R$$ lot, replace the in-game building with your "Average House", and you have a set of model, desc and lot.

Now you could repeat the last step and make a lot of different size and finally save it under a new name. Now you have two lots for the same house.

And now you could go back to the plugin manager, declare the same building model as landmark and call it "Lousy Landmark". Then you take an existing landmark lot, replace the default landmark on it with your "Lousy Landmark", and from this point on, you can see the pattern, I guess.

It gets even better: You can also mod your building as prop and use it to create a lot where the building will appear to stand four times right next to each other - one as the actual building (there cannot be more than one building on a lot), and three as props (of which you can place many on a single lot).

Maybe you could tell us about which files in particular you're wondering? This might enable someone to tell you more about their purpose.

[SamFlash 0]

You answered my question even though I'm not sure you understood what I was asking.  Thanks T, I appreciate the quick response.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

TBH, I wasn't quite sure, either, so I took the "shotgun approach" - something just gotta hit the spot in any case.

[cityhawk 12]

I have a question: Like, you have a mega pack of something that includes a single file that you also still have; does that affect how something appears in the game? Does it affect game performance. Please give a simple answer, as the stuff above is just too complicated for me to understand at this point. Thanks in advance.

[Andreas Roth 607]

It might take a bit longer to read the additional file, but the game performance is not affected, since only one instance of that particular object is used (the one that is loaded last).

[cityhawk 12]

^ Whewww! I thought I was going to have to spend a long time looking for any duplicate files. Thanks, Andreas Roth!

[Andreas Roth 607]

Well, obviously, looking for duplicates isn't a bad idea after all - even if they don't harm the game, the props and textures in the dependency packs might have been updated, so if the old files are still lurking around and are loaded after the mega packs, the new settings could be overridden again. And last but not least the old files take up precious space on your HD.